Many firsts during Obama's second inauguration

New Delhi, Jan 22: As Barack Obama was sworn in for the second term with a pledge to care for the aspirational generation, the social media peaked, resulting in slowing of Twitter, one of the many first for US president's inauguration.

There were 1.1 million inauguration related messages sent on the air, which amounted to 27,795 tweets per minute. Twitter's service had problems on Monday in US for over six hours with users complaining slow service. Some people could not even access the service.

Obama made history and mentioned the word "gay" and the issue of gay rights for the first time in a speech at the presidential swearing-in.

Meanwhile, resurgent Obama signalled that he stood by his conviction and ready for hard bargaining and last-minute deals to put into reality his vision for US.

"We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit. But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future," he said. "The commitments we make to each other - through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security - these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great."

Keeping script close to the objective of inaugural addresses of the presidents, Obama chose to draw attention to the aspirations he hopes will define him rather than the conflicts that have characterised his relations with a divided Congress, during his first term.

Obama and his aides had fashioned the inaugural speech with a belief that the president had replenished his political strength with his re-election and with his end-of-year deal with Republicans on income tax rates.

The newly found confidence reflected in the programme with Richard Blanco becoming the first Hispanic, openly gay and youngest poet to read a verse during a US presidential inauguration, while singer Beyonce performed the Star Spangled Banner.

He is also the first president to utter the word climate change at the inauguration. Obama said some people "may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science" that global warming exists and has human causes, "but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms."

He pledged to boost renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power and said, "the path toward sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition. We must lead it."

OneIndia News